Crimea's lightning liberation: UPR army’s two-week triumph a century ago
On April 24, 1918, Simferopol resounded with loud Ukrainian slogans. The buildings of local institutions were decorated with flowers and Ukrainian symbols, and people took to the streets with portraits of Taras Shevchenko.
This was how the Ukrainian People’s Republic army led by Petro Bolbochan was greeted after it managed to drive the Bolsheviks out of the peninsula in a fortnight. It was one of the most successful offensive operations of the Ukrainian army during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917-1921.
hromadske recalls the prerequisites for this triumph, how it was achieved so quickly, and what was the fate of the peninsula and the fleet stationed there.
The beginning of the great war
It’s December 16, 1917. After the proclamation of the autonomous Ukrainian People's Republic and the refusal of the Ukrainian Central Rada to recognize the Bolshevik-established Council of People's Commissars as the central government in Russia, a letter was sent to Kyiv. "Manifesto to the Ukrainian people with ultimatum demands to the Ukrainian Rada".
In this document, the Soviet government allegedly recognized Ukraine's right to secede, but at the same time, demanded unconditional assistance to the Bolsheviks. For example, they demanded that they stop disarming the Bolsheviks’ units, allow them to pass to the southern front to fight against Alexey Kaledin's troops, and prevent his supporters from entering the Don region.
The UPR was given 48 hours to respond.
"The Council of People's Commissars of Russia has no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Ukraine; Ukraine will not allow anarchy and devastation like in Russia;
disarmament of Bolshevik units is necessary to avoid civil war; Russian Bolshevik units should realize their national aspirations in Russia, not Ukraine;
Ukraine opposes Bolshevik methods of establishing power," read the letter signed by Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Symon Petliura.
The Reds unleashed the first Soviet-Ukrainian war. Then they quickly seized Kharkiv, where they proclaimed the creation of the Soviet Ukrainian People's Republic and launched an offensive against the entire left bank of the Dnipro River. In parallel, a group from Belarus acted in the same way.
Red troops were approaching Kyiv and eventually managed to capture it. The Ukrainian government had the only chance for salvation. And it took advantage of it.
As a party to the The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 9 February 1918 between the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), ending Ukraine's involvement in World War I and recognizing the UPR's sovereignty.Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Ukrainian delegation led by Vsevolod Holubovych agreed with the Germans and Austro-Hungarians that their armies would help drive the Bolsheviks out of the UPR, and in return, Kyiv would supply food for the soldiers of the Quadruple Alliance.
Red Crimea
In November 1917, when the Ukrainian Central Rada announced the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic, Crimea was not included in the young republic. It was assumed that the peninsula would go to the Crimean Tatars.
In December of the same year, they convened the first Kurultai, a national congress of the Crimean Tatar people, where they proclaimed the creation of the Crimean People's Republic and adopted their own Constitution. The Kurultai was recognized as a national parliament and formed its own government, headed by Noman Çelebicihan.
However, the Bolsheviks interfered with the plans. After rapidly seizing the regions of Slobozhanshchyna, Donbas, and the Left Bank, by the end of January 1918, the Red Army had captured almost the entire peninsula. Eventually, the "Red Terror" began there, with mass murders of those who disagreed with the new Soviet government. According to various estimates, up to 8,000 people were killed at that time.
The Reds quickly proclaimed the creation of the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic. Çelebicihan himself, who tried to negotiate with the Bolsheviks, was shot at the end of February 1918, along with some sailors of the Black Sea Fleet.
Ousting the Bolsheviks
After the Brest peace treaty, Ukrainian and German troops joined forces and began to liberate the territory of the Ukrainian People's Republic from the Reds. On March 2, 1918, the blue and yellow flag flew over Kyiv, and on April 8, over Kharkiv.
On April 10, the UPR troops received a secret task from the political leadership to liberate Crimea from the Bolsheviks before the Germans. The main target was the Black Sea Fleet of the former Russian Empire located there. Back in January 1918, the UPR even passed a temporary law on the fleet, according to which the entire fleet in Crimea was recognized as Ukrainian, even though Ukraine did not consider the peninsula its territory.
The liberation of Crimea was entrusted to the 2nd Zaporizhzhya Infantry Regiment, Zaporizhzhya Panzer and Cannon Divisions. The campaign to Crimea was led by Petro Bolbochan, who had liberated Kharkiv the day before.
According to the candidate of historical sciences and author of the book Forgotten Victory. The Crimean Operation of Petro Bolbochan in 1918, Serhiy Hromenko, Bolbochan was inconvenient for the Ukrainian ruling elite, so they tried to get rid of him in this way.
"Crimea was the most remote point in Ukraine where troops could be sent. That's why Bolbochan, as the most inconvenient military officer, was sent away so that he would not muddy the waters and get into conflicts with the socialists in the UCR," Hromenko explains in a comment to hromadske, although he notes that there is a lack of evidence for this.
First stop – Syvash, then – Dzhankoy
When Bolbochan and his army set off for Crimea, a German group led by General Robert Kosch also began an offensive on the peninsula, in the direction of Perekop, in the northeast of Crimea, not far from Armyansk.
Bolbochan also planned to advance that way, but since the Ukrainian army had to get there earlier, his army decided to go another way-through Chonhar, east of Perekop. To do this, the Ukrainians had to cross the railroad crossing that ran across Lake Syvash, which the Bolsheviks had mined.
The Ukrainians initially planned to cross the lake by boats. However, Bolbochan's group later resorted to a trick and stormed the railroad crossing over the reservoir.
To do this, Bolbochan's scouts quickly began to ferry armored trains with people and weapons on handcars. Due to the effect of surprise, the Reds did not have time to detonate the bridge and had to retreat.
The Ukrainians proceeded to Dzhankoy, the first major logistical point in the north of Crimea. But when they got there in the evening of April 22, Bolbochan's group came across the Germans, who had taken the city three days earlier.
The Germans were faced with a dilemma: to advance further on the Bolshevik positions, which were retreating toward Feodosia, or to deal with the Ukrainians, who had appeared out of nowhere. Kosch's group delayed the decision, and Bolbochan took advantage of this by moving toward Simferopol. On April 24, the Ukrainian military captured the city.
A few hours later, Kosch's German units entered the city. A conflict broke out between the Ukrainian military and the Berlin allies. Serhiy Hromenko, PhD, emphasizes that this happened because the Germans did not understand where Bolbochan came from until the last moment, since the order for the UPR army to attack Crimea was secret.
"The Germans didn't know until the last moment whether Bolbochan was a Ukrainian military figure, a Bolshevik, or some local anarchist otaman. It all came out because the Ukrainians did not warn the Germans about the offensive, and when the conflict in Simferopol began, Kyiv explained to the allies what was going on, but it was too late," the historian notes.
On the morning of April 26, German troops began to surround Bolbochan's units in Simferopol. He was given an ultimatum demanding that he lay down his arms, disband his units, and leave Crimea. This was explained by the fact that under the terms of the Brest peace treaty, the peninsula was not recognized as part of the UPR.
And the Germans were right. So on April 27, Kyiv ordered Bolbochan to leave Crimea.
The Crimean operation was one of the most brilliant victories of the Ukrainian army. Bolbochan's group did not suffer a single defeat, but was forced to withdraw from the peninsula due to political disagreements within the Ukrainian Central Rada.
The UCR paid a heavy price for this. Already on April 29, Pavlo Skoropadskyi, who was a protege of the Germans, came to power, and the Rada ceased to exist.
How was the liberation of Crimea so quick?
The entire Crimean operation lasted two weeks. The liberation of the peninsula from the Bolsheviks was a joint achievement of not only Ukrainians and Germans, but also Crimean Tatars. On April 18, the locals launched a large-scale uprising in the south of the peninsula, in the deep rear of the Bolsheviks. Although the uprising was suppressed, it also hit the Reds' defense capabilities.
"The Bolsheviks did not rely on the support of the local population, they did not have much power here. They were usurpers. And when Ukrainians, Germans, and Crimean Tatar rebels came together in one place, it turned out that no one supported the Bolsheviks, and even the Black Sea Fleet itself was split. There was no one to fight for the Bolsheviks," says Hromenko.
The fleet, by the way, remained in the Crimea. It was interned by German troops. In November 1918, after the German surrender in World War I, the southern regions of Ukraine were occupied by Britain and France. They took control of the navy, which they later began to transfer to the White Guard.